Feisty Firefighters Bundle

They spoke very little to each other during the time it took to find the local GP clinic in the phone book, make an appointment and get ready. They exchanged only the bare necessities of communication as they sat in a crowded waiting room full of sniffling toddlers and fragile-looking older people who stared accusingly at anyone making too much noise. They glared in Megan’s direction on a consistent basis.

Conversation with the GP they finally saw was somewhat stilted due to the on-the-spot fabrication that Jason had agreed in advance to mind his daughter for a few days while his ex-partner had a holiday in New Zealand. It wasn’t until they were home again nearly three hours later that the tension finally evaporated.

‘I thought she was going to call the police and report a stolen child. I was getting sweaty palms, imagining myself being arrested.’

‘It’s just as well Megan is so unmistakably yours, thanks to those eyes.’

‘It was really embarrassing not to be able to answer any of those questions. How would I know if the pregnancy and birth were normal?’ Jason frowned. ‘I should know. Shelley should have told me.’

‘The doctor was great, giving her such a thorough checkup. She said she looks generally well cared for.’

‘If she’d been well cared for she wouldn’t have been left on a doorstep all night and she wouldn’t have an ear infection now.’

Laura said nothing. If she told Jason that Megan had only been left outside for a matter of minutes rather than hours, she would also have to confess that the mother had been seen driving off in the company of a man and hadn’t bothered with even a backward glance at her child. The implication that she wouldn’t be in a hurry to collect her daughter in the next few days, and the prospect of a longer time with a miserable infant, would surely be enough to ensure Jason found a rapid escape route from this situation. And Laura didn’t want that. It was too early to tell whether this could work out for any of them and she wasn’t going to give up. Not yet.

‘And why did the doctor say it was a shame she wasn’t being breast-fed?’

‘Breast-feeding gives a baby more protection against bugs. Some immunity gets passed on from the mother.’

‘There you go, then,’ Jason said triumphantly. ‘If Shelley was a halfway decent mother she would have been breast-feeding. And she certainly wouldn’t have just dumped her kid on a doorstep.’

‘No.’ Laura was quite happy to agree to that.

She looked down at the exhausted infant she was holding. The dose of paracetamol administered at the clinic had worked wonders and Megan was now too sleepy to finish her bottle. She had been dozing between short bursts of sucking but now felt like such a dead weight that Laura was sure she was sound asleep.

Hopefully, the GP was right and Megan would be in the fifty per cent of otitis media sufferers whose pain would settle in twenty-four hours without needing antibiotics. If it was any worse tomorrow they would have to take her back, otherwise her ears would be checked in a few days’ time.

‘Could you put her down in the bassinet, please, Jase?’

Jason hesitated. ‘She’ll wake up if I touch her. She’ll start screaming again and my ears are only just starting to recover.’

‘I don’t think she will,’ Laura said confidently. ‘She’s dead to the world. Come on, it’s time you learned how to put your daughter to bed.’

Jason looked as rebellious as a small boy about to have a dirty face wiped but then he gave that lopsided smile that touched something deep within Laura’s heart.

‘OK, I’ll give it a bash. But don’t blame me if she wakes up. She hates me.’

Gingerly, Jason picked up the floppy baby and carried her to the bassinet.

‘Put her on her side,’ Laura advised. ‘And then tuck the sheet over her firmly enough to make sure she doesn’t roll onto her tummy.’

Jason was arranging the baby as though handling an unexploded bomb. ‘Why can’t she sleep on her tummy?’ he asked. ‘I do it all the time.’

Laura pushed back the image of Jason in those pyjama pants, sprawled prone on a mattress, with tousled blond hair and a stubble-roughened chin turned to one side. ‘It’s thought to be a major factor in protection against SIDS.’

‘SIDS?’

‘Sudden infant death syndrome. Used to be called cot death.’

Jason stared at the tiny face below him as he carefully tucked in the sheet. ‘She’s not going to die, is she?’

‘Of course not.’ The notion that Jason was starting to care about his child caused a wash of pleasure that was unfortunately short-lived.

‘Wouldn’t be a good look, would it? Handing it back to its mother if it had fallen off its perch.’ Jason grinned at Laura. ‘Be a bit hard to cover up my incompetence then, wouldn’t it?’

‘All new parents feel incompetent,’ Laura said quietly. ‘Babies don’t come with personalised instruction manuals. We’ve had a sharper learning curve than most, what with her unexpected arrival and her being unwell, but we’re doing OK.’

Jason simply nodded and Laura hugged the fact he hadn’t questioned their partnership as unexpected parents for Megan. It wasn’t a lot but it was enough to be going on with and the silence in the room seemed to herald a peacefulness that bordered on contentment. Almost.

‘I am so hungry,’ Laura had to confess. ‘Did you notice we missed lunch?’

‘Now that you mention it.’ Jason looked at his watch and his eyes widened. ‘We’ve almost missed dinner as well. I can’t believe I’ve gone so long without food. I hadn’t even been thinking about it.’

‘You had other things to think about.’

‘Yeah. Did you see all those old fogies giving us the death glare in that waiting room?’

Laura nodded, smiling.

‘You would have thought it was us making the noise, not our kid.’ Jason sounded affronted now.

Laura nodded her agreement and the glance they shared was one of understanding. The elderly patients had forgotten or never known what it was like to care for a new baby. Laura and Jason knew.

Our kid. Laura’s smile widened and Jason smiled right back at her.

‘I could kill for some of Mrs Mack’s bacon and eggs right now.’

‘Me, too.’

‘And a beer.’ Jason raised an eyebrow. ‘I s’pose you’d rather have wine or something?’

‘No. I like beer.’

‘Really?’ Jason gave Laura an assessing glance and then his smile widened. ‘Cool. I’ve got some in the fridge.’

‘Great.’

‘There’s some bacon and eggs there as well, I think. Unless Stick ate them when I wasn’t looking. Did you know I can cook?’

‘No. You seemed to know where all the take-away shops in the area were when you went out last night.’

Jason’s chin lifted at the challenge. ‘Stay right where you are,’ he ordered. ‘You’re in for a treat, babe.’

It was a treat. Crispy bacon, perfectly cooked eggs and thick slices of soft buttered bread all washed down with icy-cold lager. Megan slept on…and on. They did the dishes, sterilised bottles, made up the night feeds and sorted all the new baby purchases into tidied positions. And still Megan slept.

‘Do you think she’s all right?’ Jason peered into the bassinet. ‘I can’t tell if she’s even breathing.’

‘She’s fine,’ Laura told him. ‘She’s got a lot of sleep to catch up on.’

‘She’s not the only one.’ Jason flopped onto the couch beside Laura and yawned hugely. ‘Shall I put the bassinet in your room, then?’

Laura cleared her throat. ‘I was thinking it could go in your room.’

They eyed each other warily.

‘Maybe…’ Jason sounded hopeful. ‘We could leave it in here and take turns getting up?’

‘Megan’s not an “it”, Jason.’

‘I was talking about the bassinet.’

‘Oh…OK.’ Laura let that one pass. ‘All right. Sounds fair to me. Who’s going to get up first?’